ERICKSON-RUTH

10^th DIRECTOR OF NAVY NURSE CORPS

Ruth Alice Erickson was born on June 20, 1913, in Virginia, Minnesota.  She graduated from Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing in Rochester in 1934 and joined the Navy Nurse Corps in July 1936.  On December, 7, 1941, she was on duty at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Pearl Harbor and witnessed the Japanese attack.  Historical records reflect that when she heard the planes roaring close overhead and recognizing them as Japanese, she dashed through a shrapnel shower in the smoky haze from her quarters to the Hospital where the stations, wards and operating rooms were quickly fully functioning and she is recorded having said, “How they ever managed, I’ll never know.”

Less than two weeks later she was one of three nurses selected to accompany the first war casualties who were evacuated from the USS PRESIDENT COOLIDGE.  Later, as Chief of Nursing Service aboard USS HAVEN (April 1945 to March 1946), she returned to Pearl Harbor on the day U.S. hostilities with Japan ended.  Her career also included assignments at the USN hospital in San Diego, and on the hospital ship USS RELIEF. She served at naval hospitals and medical facilities in Corona, California; Farragut, Idaho; St. Albans, New York; Brooklyn, New York; and Great Lakes, Illinois.  She also served as the Nurse Corps Personnel Officer at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington D.C., as well as the Chief of Nursing Service at USN Hospitals in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Portsmouth, Virginia. 

CAPT Erickson’s last assignments were in the Washington, D.C., area as Chief Nurse of the then Bethesda Naval Hospital before being assigned as Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1962 until her retirement in May 1966.  As Director, she sought improvements in nursing service administration and nursing practices, and looked to increase opportunities for the advancement of the officers in the Nurse Corps and the expansion of nursing education programs. 

She continued living in Alexandria, Virginia, until 1990, then returned to Minnesota where she died on November 25, 2008, in Rochester.  CAPT ERICKSON never married and was survived by a sister, and many nieces and nephews.  She was interned with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)